Cuomo to curb mandates

Cuomo may try to mandate mandate relief

Updated 6:50 am, Monday, January 21, 2013

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's third executive budget may not have much extra aid for localities, which has been held flat for years. But the governor could be readying some relief for local governments, his top aides have assured various constituencies, although it's unclear whether Cuomo will challenge the influential trial lawyers lobby with his plan.

A host of business groups are praying he will call for rewriting the Scaffold Law, which requires contractors to pay for expensive insurance in case of any gravity-related injury on a job. They say this would be an ideal time to do so, given that it would not cost the struggling state a dime while saving financially burdened school districts, municipalities and the state itself a bundle at a time of recovery projects from Superstorm Sandy and the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

Criticized for not mentioning mandate relief in his State of the State speech, Cuomo has assured various parties that he will scratch some itches, but he has not mentioned tort reform. The Scaffold Law allows suits and full judgments for falls or injuries from fallen objects even if a worker is drunk or violating safety regulations. Insurance companies, construction trades groups and other business groups united as the state Lawsuit Reform Alliance have been campaigning for a break. They've paid for studies and reports from the State University of New York's Rockefeller College on the high cost of litigation. College and Alliance officials maintain the studies are not biased and are independent.

Cuomo recently hired one of the authors of the reports, former Rockefeller College deputy dean and director of intergovernmental studies Sydney Cresswell. She is Cuomo's policy adviser on local government issues reporting to Cuomo's top aide, Larry Schwartz, who oversees the governor's mandate relief council.

"If you talk to the municipal officials, what they'll tell you is the money they are spending now on liability claims is no longer making people safer, it is just trying to make you pay more," said Tom Stebbins, the head of the Alliance.

Labor groups like the law — particularly important in New York City, where a lot of scaffolding is needed to work on high-rise buildings — as it is. If construction unions are upset at a Scaffold Law reform to allow for comparative negligence, Cuomo is offering something they will like. He is planning to unveil an increase in unemployment insurance benefits. The rate has been fixed at a maximum of $400 per week since 1999. Building trade employees easily reach that cap. The governor intends to raise the maximum payout and allow it to continue to rise in steps to gradually get to 50 percent of the average weekly wage, and then index growth in the benefit, according to people briefed.

Horse deaths piling up

Five horses have died as a result of racing at Aqueduct Race Track this winter, following a rash of breakdowns last year that triggered an independent examination of casualties and recommendations for change. One idea proposed by a panel of veterinarians and others was to consider a synthetic track on the inner oval of the state's Queens racetrack. The New York Racing Association's board of trustees is set to talk about that notion on Friday. NYRA's estimate for such a fix is $8 million. Trustees are also proposing to reduce race days or races.